The world Wide Web has provided a convenient mechanism for marketing products. Many web sites offer products for sale. Generally a potential customer viewing such a web site indicates a desire to buy a particular product by "clicking" on a particular location on the display screen. Some sites require a user to "register" by giving a name, address and credit card information. Later when a customer desires to buy a product the information entered during registration is used for billing and shipping. Other sites allow a customer to enter billing and shipping information after the customer has indicated a desire to purchase a particular product.
Some web sites allow a buyer to bid on products that are offered in the internet's equivalent of an auction. Other web sites allow a user to made an offer to buy products at a price specified by the buyer, much as an individual might make an offer to buy a product at a particular price in a face to face situation.
Web sites such as those described above in essence utilize the internet to automate a conventional buying process. The process takes place at great speed and the parties may be remote, but the fundamental transaction is conventional.
The present invention provides a new paradigm for conducting a marketing transaction. Quantity pricing is conventional. However, in a conventional quantity pricing situation, one buyer is offered a series of prices depending upon the number of products purchased. The present invention utilizes the idea of quantity pricing in a new way. The present invention utilizes the internet to aggregate potentially unrelated and potentially totally independent buyers into a buying group. By aggregating the buyers, each buyer receives the advantage of quantity pricing.